The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq has requested that Russia refrain from using its air space for its Syria missions.
KRG Interior Minister Kareem Sinjari met with Russia's Consul General to Erbil, Viktor Simakov, today for talks, according to Kurdish news site Rudaw. Sinjari reportedly asking Simakov to ask Moscow to find new routes for aircraft and cruise missiles that are using Kurdish air space.
Baghdad asked the KRG to suspend flights at its two airports for 48 hours because Russia was targeting IS across the border from Syria, a Kurdish airport official told Rudaw late Sunday.
Most of the six French nationals on trial in Paris for alleged involvement in a recruitment network for European militants fighting in Syria have portrayed themselves as naive amateurs, AP reports.
One of the suspects, Paul M'Barga, 23, who had a photograph taken of himself in Syria holding a Kalashnikov rifle told the court that carrying the weapon was "a disguise."
"It's like when you're little and you put on a Spiderman costume," he said.
The six accused face up to ten years in prison.
Russia's TASS news agency has been given a copy of an anti-IS recruitment brochure designed by the CIS Antiterrorism Center and Russia's Civic Chamber to help parents and teachers.
The brochure includes indicators that are intended to help parents realize that their children have been influenced by IS recruiters.
The indicators include "enthusiasm for religious literature" and "using Arabic words and Islamic terminology."
Russian is the "third most popular among recriuters" and "terrorists believe that Russia is a good prospect for recruiting youth," according to Elena Sutormina, who leads the Civic Chamber's "Opposing IS Recruitment in Russia" project.
The CIS Antiterrorism Center and the Civic Chamber also spoke to TASS about its new monitoring program to detect IS recruitment websites, named Laplace's Demon.
'People Join IS Out Of Hunger'
A Syrian who fled with his family to Turkey from IS's de facto capital, Raqqa, has told CNN that daily life in the Syrian city had become unbearable.
"You can count the number of doctors on one hand and they only service IS. Every day hundreds gather for free food hand outs. It's not a lot. You stand there being humiliated trying to get something to eat," Suleiman, a former teacher, said.
"IS gives anything for free to people who join them. The rest of us get nothing. There is no food, electricity or money. The people join IS out of hunger"
Turkey has summoned Russia's ambassador in Ankara following an incident on Sunday in which a Russian war ship sailed through the Bosphorus Strait with a soldier allegedly holding a rocket launcher on his shoulder, the CNN Turk news station reports.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the incident "openly provocative."
The Bosphorus is a major sea access route for Russia's Black Sea fleet. Turkey's Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said Sunday that the Russian serviceman holding a surface-to-air missile launcher on the warship had violated the 1936 Montreux Convention regulating the transit of naval vessels through the Bosphorus.
Relations between Moscow and Ankara have deteriorated since the November 24 downing by Turkey of a Russian jet near the Syrian border.
Iraqi PM: Most Oil Smuggled By IS Groes Through Turkey
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said that most oil smuggled by the IS group goes through Turkey.
Abadi stressed the "importance of stopping oil smuggling by (IS) terrorist gangs, the majority of which is smuggled through Turkey," a statement from his office said, according to AFP.
Russia and Iran have accused Turkey of involvement in IS oil smuggling while the United States has said that IS oil smugging through Turkey is not significant.
Tensions with Russia could cost the Turkish economy $9 billion in the worst case scenario of "zero relations," Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simset told the private NTV television station today.
The current tensions are likely to cut 0.3 to 0.4 percent off Turkey's gross domestic product (GDP), Simset said, according to AFP.
Russia has imposed economic sanctions on Turkey in the wake of the November 24 downing by Turkish F-16s of a Russian war plane near the Syrian border.
A terror suspect who allegedly stabbed a 56-year-old man in a London subway station on December 5 has been remanded in custody this morning, the Courtnews.co.uk website reports.
Muhaydin Mire, 29, has been charged with attempted murder.
The suspect in a purported terrorist stabbing in a London subway station had "IS images on his phone," a court in London has heard, according to AFP.
Muhaydin Mire, 29, of Leytonstone, is appearing in custody at Westminster Magistrates Court today accused of the attempted murder of a 56-year-old man on Saturday.
Turkey has pulled 350 troops back from the Turkey-Iraq border, Turkish daily Hurriyet is reporting.
Iraq threatened yesterday that it would go to the United Nations if Ankara did not withdraw soldiers it sent to areas near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The 350 troops are waiting on the border and will be sent to Iraq if Ankara and Baghdad come to an agreement on the matter, Hurriyet reports.